This June, President Trump formally announced a plan to create a new branch of the U.S. military called the Space Force. Establishing security in space has been a U.S. interest for decades, and as such the idea of a military branch focused on space is not an entirely new one. There has historically been some support for similar ideas on Capitol Hill, but there has also been a lot of skepticism about any such plan both inside and outside of government.

On July 30, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted an event exploring whether or not a Space Force is a good plan for the U.S. military. Participants included Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James; Steve Jacques, a retired Air Force officer and now managing partner at Velos LLC; Brookings Senior Fellow Frank Rose, former deputy assistant secretary of state for space and defense policy; Brian Weeden, director of program planning at Secure World Foundation. Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings, moderated the discussion as well as share his thoughts on the issues.